Live Review: WILD DOG 4: NAKED (SPNM on-line reviews) Reviewed by Jerry Wigens The Space, Friday 15 September 2006 Christopher Redgate (oboe/cor anglais), duo Contour: Stephen Altoft (trumpet) Lee Ferguson (percussion) Holly Wisker, Janina Moninska (live art), Tony Salinas (composer for bellophone) The evening, set in this intimate and friendly venue, consisted of performance art, film and music, all of it impressively professional and well presented. Tony Salinas gave a fascinating demonstration of his 96 note-to-the-octave bellophone before the main event. I was relieved to learn that the bells were tuned mechanically by the arduous application of file and tuner, and that Tony was in fact a mere mortal in terms of pitch discernment! The presque-glissandi were reminiscent of calibrated water gong sounds, and the instrument’s capacity to hover around specific pitch areas with micromovements was enchanting. It featured in one of the eight short pieces improvised by duo Contour to accompany old home movies. Film of a fishing expedition enabled Lee Ferguson to explore the instrument’s potential for wavering, nautical bell sounds. The duo’s later accompaniment to Donald Bousted’s in your dreams was an effective electro-acoustic soundtrack carefully conceived to complement the film’s mirror imagery and split-screen techniques. Of the other films shown, Paulo Henrique’s Contract with the Skin was outstanding. Originally a dance performance with its soundtrack partly generated by the performers’ movements, it explored facets of our relationship with our outer layer. The film was accompanied by a wonderful soundt ra c k , i mpressively realised by Rui Leitao, who had created an intriguing acousmatic tapestry with voice-derived and material sounds. Earlier, to start the main event, the Host Artists Group had shown the 36 1-minute shorts created for their Host 4 Cinema Project. These were all visually captivating, and several featured stunning soundtracks. Of particular note was Bocman’s sound on Neil Webb’s shattering mirror piece Underworld and the menacing, treated cello sounds of Sarah Moody in Laura Hardman’s beach drama Aversion Therapy. Oboist Christopher Redgate’s performances were their usual inspired combination of technical precision and inventiveness. Seemingly effortless circular breathing featured on his 5-minute improvisation …the sting of the bee, and his interpretations of Andriessen’s frenetic A Flower Song 2, Denissow’s subtle multiphonics in Solo for Oboe and Carter’s lyrical cor anglais writing in A Six Letter Letter were a real pleasure. Holly Wisker’s silent nude performance piece, Untitled, with its echoes of Yoko Ono and Bobby Baker, involved members of the audience stamping her body with selected words which, alas, I never saw. Janina Moninska’s Hair as Metonomy was an altogether livelier affair taking the form of a tongue-in-cheek lecture on the postmodern condition of our relations with head, underarm and pubic hair. Very informative and funny.
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